The Senate just advanced reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a part of the law designed to monitor foreign communications that violate the Fourth Amendment. Set to expire Friday, this part of FISA allows the warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens through backdoor loopholes.
First enacted in 1978 during the Cold War to gather intelligence in the interest of national security, FISA has now become the free pass for the U.S. government to spy on its own citizens. The government has conceded that the communication data of Americans living overseas might be collected under “incidental collection.” Simply put, as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., stated on Fox Business’ “Kennedy” show, this is “a bedrock constitutional principle.”
